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Tony Acevedo , right , meets with a governor of Mexico in 1945 . It was Acevedo who first inspired CNN users .

ATLANTA , Georgia -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- I 'll never forget holding World War II medic Tony Acevedo in my arms . He wept and convulsed for more than 10 minutes , his body constricting and tightening in a way I 'd never seen before . `` I 'm sorry , '' he said , repeating , `` I 'm sorry . I want to say more , but I ca n't . ''

I held his hand and hugged him until he calmed . I had asked what I thought was a simple question . `` When I say the name Erwin Metz , what comes to your mind ? ''

That 's when the demons of 1945 took over .

Metz was one of the Nazi commanders who headed a slave labor camp known as Berga an der Elster , where 350 U.S. soldiers -- 80 of whom had been targeted for being Jewish -- were beaten , starved and forced to work in tunnels at a secret V-2 rocket factory . They worked 10 to 12 hour days with only 400 calories of food , mostly bread made from sawdust . More than 100 soldiers died at the camp or on a forced death march of more than 200 miles .

Other Berga survivors had described Metz : `` A real bastard . '' `` Butcher of the Earth . '' They said he talked with a high-pitched lisp . Behind his back , the soldiers called him Donald Duck .

But he wreaked hell on the men . He shot one soldier , Morton Goldstein , through the head , execution-style , according to the survivors . Acevedo described seeing Metz dump ice water on one emaciated soldier . The soldier died of shock moments later .

Acevedo catalogued the atrocities in a diary he kept hidden in his pants , using a Sheaffer fountain pen to record what he saw all around . When the soldiers were on their forced death march , Acevedo asked to use his pen for a tracheotomy to save a soldier named George Buddeski . Metz refused . Flip through the pages of Acevedo 's diary ''

`` You 're going to kill him then , '' Acevedo responded . Metz grabbed a rifle from a guard and cracked the young medic across his face . Acevedo suffered permanent nerve damage from the blow .

Buddeski died April 13 , 1945 , on the death march on what the soldiers call Hell 's Highway . The soldiers learned of another death that day : President Franklin Delano Roosevelt . `` Your Jew president has died , '' the Nazis said mockingly .

There , in the middle of Germany , the American soldiers bowed their heads . `` We held a prayer service for the repose of his soul , '' Acevedo 's diary says . Amid the chaos and death all around them , these men -- these soldiers who suffered so much -- took the time to stop and pray for their president .

When CNN first reported Acevedo 's story in November , I had no idea it would lead to what I witnessed this weekend : The U.S. Army reversing course on six decades of silence and recognizing the Berga soldiers for what they went through .

It 's always been a touchy subject for the Army . The U.S. government in 1948 commuted the death sentences of Metz and his superior , Hauptmann Ludwig Merz . The men walked free in the 1950s , one of dozens of convicted war criminals whose sentences were commuted as part of an effort to bolster Germany , which was facing the threat of Soviet expansion .

In explaining its decision on the Berga commanders , the War Department said , `` Metz , though guilty of a generally cruel course of conduct toward prisoners , was not directly responsible for the death of any prisoners except one who was killed during the course of an attempt to escape . '' Read the War Department 's explanation for commuting their sentences ''

That prisoner was Goldstein , the one shot through the head .

When you read that document , it does n't sit too easy . The government excuses the killing of one soldier . Berga soldiers will tell you they were never called to testify against Metz or Merz . They say they could 've told of many other atrocities .

When Metz and Merz were freed , the survivors felt the Army betrayed the war ethos of `` leave no soldier behind . '' They eventually got on with their lives . Many went on to the top of their professions . They 're all the most patriotic Americans you 'll ever meet .

As the survivors reached their 70s and 80s , many began wondering why the government still refused to recognize them . It nagged them . It angered some of them .

No ranking Pentagon official had described Berga as a `` slave labor camp . ''

Heading into last weekend , the six Berga survivors present knew a two-star general was being sent to meet with them . Many were skeptical : What can a general do at this point to make us feel better ? Surely , a two-star wo n't call it a `` slave labor camp '' after all this time . Nah , he 'll toe the company line .

These were men who 'd been disappointed before . They did n't want to set expectations too high this time .

But there at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando , Florida , something magical transpired . See photos of the Berga men being honored ''

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Vincent Boles did a sit-down interview with me , while six Berga survivors -- Samuel Fahrer , 86 ; Morton Brooks , 83 ; Sidney Lipson , 85 ; Peter Iosso , 83 ; Wallace Carden , 84 ; and Edward Slotkin , 84 -- watched .

`` It was n't a prison camp . It was a slave labor camp , '' Boles said . Watch the general set the record straight after six decades ''

I was stunned in that moment . I 'll even admit I got choked up . I knew history had just been made , the legacy of the Berga soldiers preserved for all time . The men looked on stoically and I knew what they were thinking : `` Drash , pull yourself together ! We got a two-star in our presence ! ''

I was thinking about all that transpired in the last eight months .

I thought about Bernard `` Jack '' Vogel and Izzy Cohen , who were forced to stand without food and water for days , pushed to their deaths . Cohen was a 32-year-old father of two young children . I had met with his 90-year-old wife , Florence , and their daughter , Nomi , months before .

Florence is a diminutive woman , the epitome of class and grace . She told me a story I 'll never forget . When Izzy left for war , he kissed his family goodbye at a train station in California . He looked at her and said , `` Whatever happens happens . '' Those were the last words he ever spoke to her .

When she was notified Izzy was a prisoner of war on March 16 , 1945 , one relative shouted , `` That 's just like Izzy to take the easy way out of war . '' Izzy Cohen died three weeks later , a victim of the Holocaust . Tears filled Florence 's eyes as she spoke . She changed the family name , so her son would never be targeted as a Jew .

I thought about Martin Vogel , the brother of the man who died with Izzy . Martin called one day in November , crying his eyes out . `` Are you the one who did the story on the medic , Tony Acevedo ? '' he said , struggling for words . `` My brother is the one who died in his arms . ''

Martin Vogel adored his older brother . They were best friends . He entered the Army so he could be just like his brother . They were 19 and 17 . He had searched for decades for answers to Bernard 's death . `` A month does n't go by that it does n't come up in the course of my own thoughts , '' he said . `` But to me , it 's always there . ''

At the time his brother died such a horrific death , Martin Vogel was just a few hundred miles away . He was guarding a POW camp inside Germany where U.S. troops treated their Nazi captives under the Geneva Conventions . To this day , Martin , now 82 , ca n't speak about his brother without crying .

More than a dozen other families of Berga victims have reached out . I 've listened to each one and put them in touch with Acevedo for answers about their loved ones .

I 'm not the first to report on Berga . Authors Mitchell Geoffrey Bard , Flint Whitlock and Roger Cohen have written books on it . The late Charles Guggenheim made a documentary about Berga .

But what happened in recent months , I can only attribute to the power of online media and the ease of access to communicate . You can scroll through Acevedo 's diary and read the War Department document explaining why Metz and Merz were set free . Millions of you read the pieces , e-mailed them around and rallied around these weathered war heroes . It took on a life of its own .

Hundreds of you lobbied Rep. Joe Baca , D-California , and Rep. Spencer Bachus , R-Alabama . The two congressmen then pressed Army Secretary Pete Geren to recognize the soldiers .

It was humbling when Boles , the two-star general , told me that my reporting and my colleagues on CNN television preserved the men 's legacy , culminating with the Army recognizing them . That feels mighty good .

It was even more humbling talking with the fellas . They all survived the Battle of the Bulge , when a million young men went head-to-head on the battlefield . It was an honor to see the six survivors present in Orlando receive flags flown over the Pentagon in their honor ; Samuel Fahrer was awarded the Bronze Star , one of the nation 's highest medals .

`` Just as they never left their fallen comrades , we will never leave them , '' Boles said . `` You were good soldiers and you were there for your nation . ''

I wished the other Berga survivors were there , especially Acevedo .

But Acevedo did n't make the trip . His wife is ill . If he was going to leave her side , he felt the right thing would be to get honored in Washington . A soldier with pride . A medic to the end .

My final message is to my generation and the next . Do n't be so quick to shove grandpa and grandma into a nursing home . Sit down with them . Listen to them . Hear their stories . The greatest generation . They 're cut from a different cloth and we 're losing them too fast .

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Two-star general credits CNN 's online reporting in preserving WWII legacy

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CNN 's Wayne Drash filed series of reports in recent months on slave camp soldiers

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350 U.S. soldiers were held at a Nazi slave labor camp in 1945

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The Army had never recognized the men until last weekend